Content provided in partnership with
Women religious virtuosae from the middle ages: a case pattern and analytic model of types
Sociology of Religion, Spring, 2002 by Barbara R. Walters
Hadewijch of Antwerp
"Hadewijch, a Flemish beguine of the thirteenth century, is undoubtedly the most important exponent of the love mysticism and one of the loftiest figures in the Western mystical tradition" (Mommaers 1980:xiii). The Minne movement, or expressions of desire for mystical union with and service to the human Christ, spread across Low Countries in the thirteenth century. Both nuns and secular women, especially the beguines, were swept into its wake. The spiritual foundations of the Minne movement rested in devotion to the pure Gospel and ecstatic contemplation, which brought its practitioners into a direct relationship with Christ as the Divine Bridegroom (Hart 1980).
- More Articles of Interest
- "Who does she think she is?" Christian women's mysticism
- Christological transformation in The Mirror of Souls, by Marguerite Porete
- A Mirror for Simple Souls. - book reviews
- Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism (1200-1350). Vol....
- Brides in the Desert: The Spirituality of the Beguines
Unlike the case of other women mystics in the Minne tradition, no vita or life story was written for Hadewijch. Therefore the task of extrapolating the facts of her biography has posed formidable challenges for historians. Most agree that she was not a nun but rather lived in a community of beguines. The beguines, a group more diverse than often admitted, was a body of women who began to gather in the Low Countries at the end of the twelfth century. They gained official recognition in 1216, when Jacques de Vitry successfully petitioned Pope Honorarius III on their behalf for permission to live communally. General opinion among Hadewijch experts is that she was eventually exiled from her beguine group under accusations of quietism. Therefore, like Juliana, Hadewijch spent the later years of her life homeless; she offered care-giving services at a hospital or leprosarium where she could sleep. As a layperson, rather than a nun, she was far more vulnerable to potential charges of heresy than cloistered women, t o whom the charges might also have been applied.
Experts agree that Hadewijch was highly educated and most likely came from the nobility or a patrician family (Hart 1980; McGinn 1998). Her vernacular Dutch writings reflect familiarity with Latin, rhetoric, numerology, Ptolemaic astronomy and music theory. She quoted extensively from the Scriptures, using both Testaments, and demonstrated at least a passing acquaintance with some of the great writers, such as Origen, Hilary of Poitiers, Augustine, Gregory the Great and Isidore of Seville (Hart 1980:6). Like Juliana, she loved Saint Augustine and reveals a deep debt in her writings to the Victorines -- Hugh, Adam and Richard of Saint Victor -- as well as to the Cistercian Saint Bernard and William of Saint Thierry. Her familiarity with courtly love poetry is evident in her facility with poetic form, and has often been cited as evidence for her high social position and earlier contacts with the nobility.
McGinn (1998:221) indicates that Hadewijch lived in a time of emerging suspicion of the beguines, mysticism, and especially feminine mysticism. Most of the manuscripts of her work are followed by a supplement containing a "list of the perfect," in reference to Vision 13, "The Sixth-Winged Countenance" (Hart 1980). The twenty- ninth person on the list refers to a beguine love mystic killed by Master Robert, most likely a reference to the Inquisitor, Robert le Bougre, who investigated heresy in northern France and Flanders between 1235 and 1245. If this was typical of her boldness, Hadewijch was not critical of the clergy and the institutional church, and did not come under any charges of heresy herself (McGinn 1998). A brief excerpt from Vision 13 (Hart 1980:298-99) is presented below as an example of her daring ecstatic visions.
Find Research Guides for:
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »